Control Engineering - January 2018 (R) &#039;I&#039;

ANSWERS COVER STORY |

ANSWERS COVER STORY | CONTROLLERS John Hamilton, Rockwell Automation The benefits of a modular control system design approach Mitsubishi Chemical Performance Polymers (MCPP) used a modular controller design to reduce startup challenges and optimize plant operations for a new automotive production facility. Automation hardware and software was integrated into a new manufacturing plant in Brazil to add visibility and flexibility. A programmable logic controller (PLC), drives, and humanmachine interface (HMI) software were expected to help with the new plant’s operations and remote diagnostic capabilities to reduce potential downtime from days to hours. The overall design approach to this project enabled the plant to launch quickly so the company could help auto suppliers meet the impending airbag requirement. New mandate for Brazil’s auto industry Consumers in places like the U.S., Japan, and most of Europe assume new vehicles will come equipped with an airbag. The safety feature became prevalent in vehicles in many developed countries Figure 1: Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk Historian, FactoryTalk View and FactoryTalk VantagePoint EMI software provide access to manufacturing intelligence. All graphics courtesy: Rockwell Automation during the 1990s. By the turn of the century, it was either required by law or considered an essential component for automakers to include in vehicles to achieve desired safety ratings. In many developing and emerging countries around the world, airbags still either aren’t required or aren’t commonly found. In Brazil, a new law took effect in 2014 requiring airbags and other safety technologies be installed for all new vehicles sold in the country. Brazil’s new airbag requirement was the driving force that led Mitsubishi Chemical Performance Polymers (MCPP) – a group specializing in polymer design and compounding production facilities – to establish a greenfield production facility in Brazil, the world’s seventh-largest car market. The new facility would primarily support the automotive market and supply resins to airbag manufacturers for safety-critical airbag covers. Prior to expanding to Brazil, MCPP had operations in 16 countries around the world and provided custom automotive solutions for fuel management, interior, exterior, wiring, and other automotive applications for more than 30 years. MCPP production facility in Sao Paulo MCPP selected an industrial site north of Sao Paulo as the location for its new production facility in Brazil. The company wanted to get production up and running quickly to help local auto suppliers meet the airbag requirement. “We wanted the start of production to coincide as closely as possible with the timing of the new airbag requirement,” said Lee Wilson, plant manager for MCPP. “The harsh rain season pushed our site work behind schedule somewhat. When that happened, it became all the more important to look for ways to be efficient in launching this new location.” For the production infrastructure, the new facility required a feeder and extrusion system that could produce up to about 10 million pounds of resin per 18 • January2018 CONTROL ENGINEERING www.controleng.com

Figure 2: A compounding control center houses the extrusion system’s electrical and control infrastructure, including an Allen-Bradley CompactLogix programmable logic controller (PLC), Allen-Bradley PowerFlex 755 ac drives, and solid-state relays from Rockwell Automation. A separate utility control center houses the system’s utilities and information server. year at maximum production capacity. Wilson and his team wanted the Brazilian plant to mimic what MCPP already did in other regions in terms of production speed and quality management. “Quality was our first priority,” said Wilson. “We needed to make sure we could maintain tolerances with the feed systems that were feeding the extruder, as well as achieve proper distribution and dispersion of the various ingredients inside the extruder. Aesthetically, we needed to be able to maintain a consistent product look as material is compounded and pelletized.” Accessing the system remotely would be essential to help operators monitor quality and quickly take action in the event of potential production issues. This would allow U.S.-based MCPP employees and other outside experts to troubleshoot or diagnose technical challenges and help compensate for a lack of local technical support in Brazil. A modular approach MCPP chose Indiana-based Apex Engineering and its subsidiary, Apex Controls Specialists, a Rockwell Automation-recognized system integrator, to develop the extrusion system for its Brazilian production facility. Apex Engineering proposed a solution based on its proprietary modular extrusion system. The material-handling system receives raw materials including various rubbers, oils, heat stabilizers, impact modifiers, and pigments. Those materials are then distributed through a feeder deck down to the extrusion system, where they are heated and blended. Then they are sent to an underwater pelletizing system that produces the final bead-like product, which is packaged into large bags and boxes before being shipped to the airbag manufacturers. A compounding control center housed the extrusion system’s electrical and control infrastructure, which included a PLC, ac drives, and solidstate relays. A separate utility control center housed the system’s utilities and information server. The information-enabled system allowed workers and outside experts to see the critical manufacturing intelligence, temperatures, feed-rate pressures, and feeder motor speeds. Historian software collected thousands of these data points throughout the production process while HMI software and enterprise manufacturing intelligence (EMI) software allow workers to manage recipes, monitor processes, and identify and resolve production issues. Communications over EtherNet/IP, an Ethernet protocol by ODVA, allowed information to be shared throughout the plant and with outside experts via remote access. This also reduced the amount of wiring in the facility. M More ANSWERS KEYWORDS: PLC, HMI, Ethernet How to save time with a modular system design approach How remote support benefits facility operations Optimizing plant operations with a modular system design. CONSIDER THIS Can your controllers accommodate new components within 10 minutes? The Global System Integrator Database helps sort system integrators by various engineering specialties, such as programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and/or human-machine interfaces (HMIs) and other parameters. www.controleng.com/ Global-SI-Database www.controleng.com CONTROL ENGINEEERING January2018 • 19